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The Sh-Booms are back! Since January, we’ve shed our old skin and have been reborn as the garage soul band originally envisioned. Our catalog has been retooled, members have been shuffled, and we’ve practiced … and practiced … and practiced to get it all right. But it all paid off when we took to the stage as our new version of an old band last weekend at The Lodge.

Our last show was in February for Ralphfest. Emily and Samson were making the move to Portland, and for a second there the future of the band looked bleak. Our record producer put us in touch with Miss Bren and we started rebuilding. In March, the reformed Sh-Boooms were already pretending to be a functional band for an advertisement before we had even practiced together. By April, I was notating parts for our new trumpet player Nick. May had a lot of late nights re-recording vocals and horn lines for our upcoming EP. By June, we were ready to play a show.

The initial idea for our re-debut was a house party. After some grumbles and road blocks (once you hit 30 no one wants a band playing in their garage) we found a venue that wanted to do something different.

The Lodge doesn’t normally do shows. They don’t normally do shows with large bands and loud P.A.s. They definitely do not normally do shows with large bands and loud P.A.s on a Sunday afternoon. But they let us have this one. They gave us a free keg and free food, let us charge what we wanted at the door (nada), and had us fill the bill with our favorite local bands (The Wildtones, The Woolly Bushmen, and Richard Sherfey & All God’s Children).

So we got our shit together and focused on June 14th. We had written new parts for the EP so those had to be learned. We had to get two new members up to speed on songs that the rest of us have played hundreds of times. We had to get used to the new dynamic of the trimmed down band. And fuck it – let’s learn an Echo & The Bunnymen cover while we’re at it.

During one of these practices, Aaron’s copy of Wrestler magazine was suggested as inspiration for a show flier. Working around competent and talented designers all day gave me some false aire of confidence in my design skills, so I said I would give the flier a shot. Re-creating a magazine cover shouldn’t be too tough, right?

Boom. I had made my first flyer. It got stapled up and written on and passed over just like all of the other fliers. I should have saved a copy for myself, but I just forgot. It’s not like I don’t have the files to reprint a copy, anyway.

We worked hard on putting this show together, and on the day of it paid off. We crammed ‘em in and left them wanting more. It felt good to get back out there. Real good.

We’re back at 100% – booking more shows, recording more songs, and putting out this EP with a quickness. Here are a couple of confirmed gigs I can spread the word on with more to come:

July 25 – The Bricks & SPoT 5 Year Anniversary Block Party – The Bricks Ybor

August 30 – Dex Romweber Duo – Will’s Pub Orlando

September 13 – Will’s Pub 20th Anniversary Party – Will’s Pub Orlando

Finally, we’re in the running again for Orlando Weekly’s Best of Orlando 2015. It’d be real sweet of ya to throw us a vote for the Best Soul Act.